📖Authors To Watch: Stella Atrium, Author of HOME RULE: BOOK III OF THE TRIBAL WARS #authorstowatch #interview

 

 

Stella Atrium is writing The Tribal Wars series. The first trilogy is available as ebooks and in print. BookLife has awarded the Editor’s Pick designation for each book upon its release.    

Home Rule rounds out the first trilogy and received first place in the 2023 Artisan Book Review Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy.     

Book 4 titled Tribal Logic is scheduled for release in early 2024. Also be certain to pick up Atrium’s standalone novel Seven Beyond that won a 2014 Reader’s Favorites award in science fiction.   

Website: https://stellaatrium.com   

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/SAtriumWrites 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SAtriumWrites

 

Can you tell us how you got started writing science fiction?

Thinking back… I remember that I wanted to expand roles for women where they drive the plot and have tools to succeed. What better realms than magic on other planets where the roles for women are not structured by institutions like marriage or teaching or politics.

Describe your writing process. Do you plot or write by the seat of your pants? When and where do you write?

Since the narrative is carried by more than one narrator, I have charts for who is on which planet at any time in the plot, and other charts for who is speaking and present in the scene. I’m a list maker, so I find many opportunities to procrastinate. 

I write in the mornings before the phone demands my attention. I like to review the current scene, write in the character’s voice, and leave something left to write tomorrow so I have energy to start again the next day.  These habits are hard-won over decades of experimenting what works to shut out distractions. 

Can you tell us about your most recent release, Home Rule: Book III of The Tribal Wars Series?

I’m so glad you asked. Reader response has been great. Amazon readers have stated that the first two books work well, but HOME RULE in exceptional in that it ties up the story threads with a big event at the end that changes the world for all characters.
 

How did you get the idea for the whole series?

Although placed on another planet, the tribes bind together into a society where everybody votes. Individuals make big sacrifices in the struggle for unity amidst diversity. Scenes may resemble what we see on TV news segments for the Arab Spring (decades ago now), for protests in the Middle East or in India or in Asia, anywhere that voices are raised for more representation in governance.

Of all your characters, which one is your favorite? Why?

In HOME RULE Hershel Henry drives the story. He’s a photojournalist from Earth who witnesses big changes in tribal leadership. Reviewers have called him an ‘intrepid reporter’ and feckless for taking responsibility for the consequences of his actions. 

Overall of course, Brianna Miller is the protagonist. She is mixed blood and educated by different factions, even jumping back to Earth for a decade. She can see the motives of one group or another, working to negotiate a peace treaty. 

What was the most challenging aspect of writing your book?

Currently, the most challenging aspect is promoting three books together. HOME RULE includes the big ending and can be read as a stand-alone novel. THE BUSH CLINIC starts off our adventure, and THE BODY POLITIC serves to increase jeopardy for favorite characters and pressure on the tribes. 

As a writer, I’m in an unusual place in that the next novels (Books 4 and 5) are completed and in production. I have to think back for choices made for characters in the earlier books to ensure continuity. 

What projects are you currently working on?

Book 4 in the series titled TRIBAL LOGIC is in production. I recently re-edited sections of books 5 and 6. I have to keep the timelines straight and the ages of characters as they mature into adult roles. One character named Stuben, who is introduced in HOME RULE, sort of carries the narrative for later events while we see him find his place in the world.  But, that’s for later. 

What advice would you offer to new or aspiring fiction authors?

The world of publishing remakes itself every 18 months, it seems. Advice for writers that worked 3 years ago may not apply, or be useful in your genre. 

And now we have change-ups in Amazon, Meta, and Twitter for how they allow self-published writers to advertise. I find it’s best to work close to home with the writer website and with promotion partners who I can trust for book tours. 

For the writing, uh well… Writers must find lifelong themes that become signatures for what to expect from them for genre, characters, storyline, delighting the reader in specific ways – like using magic. 

Be bold! Be original! Allow the world to grow into your vision rather than reflecting what’s already written. Your voice is unique.

Stella Atrium

Website: https://stellaatrium.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SAtriumWrites

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SAtriumWrites

Reviews for HOME RULE:

Self-Publishing Review 

“a multi-world plot that is a testament to Atrium’s long-game draftsmanship”  @selfpubreview

“rich in detail at every turn, this is high sci-fi that will thrill anyone who loves imaginative stories populated with three-dimensional players”  -- @selfpubreview

https://www.selfpublishingreview.com/2023/05/home-rule-by-stella-atrium/

Artisan Book Reviews

First place winner in the 2023 @ArtisanReads Book Excellent Awards Contest for Science Fiction and Fantasy

An epic page-turner, Home Rule by Stella Atrium is a masterpiece of science fiction world-building and plotting. Terrific—a powerful, commanding, political, sci-fi with soul.

https://artisanbookreviews.com/2023/07/02/home-rule-by-stella-atrium-award-winner/

BookLife Editor’s Pick

“This superb third entry in Atrium’s Tribal Wars series showcases the author’s great strengths. Atrium populates these new realms with compelling, all-too-human characters, especially women and outsiders, trying to do the right thing despite the tangled mess of politics and power.

First-rate SF novel of revolution, oppression, and the urgent textures of life.

 

 

 

Title: Home Rule: Book 3 of The Tribal Wars
Author: Stella Atrium
Publisher: Stella Atrium Writes LLC
Pages: 458
Genre: Science Fiction

Sarafina di Ramonicc In book 3 of the award-winning series, photojournalist Hershel Henry witnesses the loss by self-torching of tribal women. The Madquii and Gora tribes have laid siege to the city of Urbyd, and Brianna Miller must seek a peace treaty.   

Kelly Osborn travels to Stargate Junction to set the wedding of ambassador Otieno. Hershel Henry opens a gazette to report on pending elections for home rule, but then shocking events upset their plans.  

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C44QT91N

 

📖Authors To Watch: Gabriella Zielke Author of The Sound of Creation #authorstowatch #interview #PUYB

 

Gabriella Zielke founded one of the world’s first tech accelerators where she was fortunate to mentor and fund hundreds of founders whose ideas previously only existed as science fiction. Fast Company named Zielke one of its Most Creative People, among other accolades from her business career. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Creative Writing at Harvard University Extension while living on St. Croix with her husband and their zealous Great Dane. When she’s not writing, you can find her dancing with fire.

Her latest book is the scifi novel, The Sound of Creation.

Visit her website at www.gabriellazielke.com or connect with her at Twitter and Facebook.

Brilliant and relentless tech CEO Ava Lawson built a system to play the currency market and make her billions. Instead, it begins to play strange music and makes normally level headed people behave irrationally, violently, dangerously.

While on the run from a coup to steal her code, Ava meets an ethereal stranger who seems to know more about her than she does.

The stranger calls himself an apprentice. He pleads for her help to stop what they have started.

“The Sound of Creation is a mind-bending book filled with big questions about our existence. It takes you on a journey disrupted by action scenes and strange characters. You will find yourself floating on dimensions you did not know even existed. This book is a mind game. You have been warned.” ~ George Papa, author of The Manual and The Architect’s typist for The Code

Book Information

Release Date: February 2, 2022

Publisher:  The Wild Rose Press

Soft Cover: ISBN:  978-1509239139; 342 pages; $17.99; E-Book, $5.99

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3B8ILUz

We welcome you to My Bookish Pleasures! Can you tell us how you got started writing fiction?

I started writing fiction when I enrolled in a class at my alma mater a year after receiving my MBA. Makes sense, right? I like to take stock of life every year and see if there’s anything I would change or do if I could. Years before, I knew I wanted to write novels, but as a single mom for twelve years, I thought other responsibilities were more important. A class couldn’t hurt though! Then I made the decision that when my son went to college, I would sell my company and take a year off to write a book. We’re now four years into that one year plan…

Describe your writing process. Do you plot or write by the seat of your pants? When and where do you write?

I like to have an idea of where the plot is going by utilizing the heroes journey. Every few chapters, I revisit (rewrite) my outline because the characters like to go off script and it’s always better when I allow them to!

I typically write on weekdays. When I’m home, I use my pool house office. When I’m traveling, I find a comfortable spot and open the laptop. If I tried to keep an exact schedule and place, I’d never finish a book.

Can you tell us about your most recent release?

The Sound of Creation is a scifi thriller that is described as “mind bending”. Ava is a tech CEO who wants to crack the code of the currency market. Instead, she creates something far more mysterious. When her system, Seneca, begins playing music, chaos ensues. Meanwhile, in the 7^th dimension Creation Guild, an apprentice is told that his project planet is threatening to bring chaos to the upper dimensions. He is ordered to return to Earth, and destroy it.

How did you get the idea for the book?

So I was in the shower one day. I had recently experienced a few incidents where I heard my intuition loud and clear, and it was right. I trust that voice deeply now, and that morning is posed a question. What if we really do live in a simulation…and it was created by an apprentice? I entertained the thought for a minute because it’s, well, entertaining. Then that voice told me it would be my first published novel. It was strange, but here we are.

Of all your characters, which one is your favorite? Why?

Zek is the apprentice who created Earth. How can you not love him for that?! He’s also ethereal and a lovely optimist. He wants every soul to ascend the dimensions…no soul left behind. And he makes friends with wolves.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing your book?

My father is an evangelical missionary, so writing about an apprentice who created Earth was a bit of a deviation from his beliefs. But, my book doesn’t exactly negate the stories I learned as a child. He might still frown on some characters’ use of f-bombs.

What projects are you currently working on?

The Billionaire Pledge is a near future tech thriller starring one of the world’s best hackers and her equally talented sister. A new cryptocurrency is set to go live and with it the promise that no human will ever be without the basic necessities of life. One of the billionaires has a different plan. The sisters must reunite to stop him.

Sistren is a speculative fiction novel about a female led society that is the world’s superpower due to the robotics its founder developed. They are forced to go through a change of leadership that threatens to collapse the order the Sistren have built.

My book ideas like to compete with one another, so I give them attention as they demand, knowing that one will eventually win to be my second novel published.

What advice would you offer to new or aspiring fiction authors?

Quit reading so much advice from other authors and write more. One of my favorite ways of staying on track and getting my word count up is to write with a partner over zoom. We call in, give a brief description of what we’re working on for the hour, then write. At the end of the hour we talk about what we got done. It really helps me focus!